ᐅ Buying a house, demolition, and having a two-family home built

Hello everyone,

I realize I’m starting to fall into self-pity a bit.
We bought a house that we wanted to demolish and then have a new duplex built.
From the very beginning, it's been nothing but problems:
1. Swallow nests delayed the demolition by 2 months
2. The soil survey showed soft and uneven ground. Result: pile foundation
3. The pile foundation required aerial image analysis for risk assessment regarding unexploded ordnance
4. A barn was bombed 60m (200 feet) away, so part of our property automatically fell into the risk zone
5. Borehole drilling was mandatory... and sure enough... a suspicious object at about 4.5m (15 feet) depth

Move-in was planned for the end of December. Our living arrangement is based on a temporary lease only until the end of January 2017.
Now it looks like it will be more like June.

Basically, anything could be in the ground... an old pipe, a garden fence, a piece of steel beam...
What’s striking is that the suspicious point lies on the imagined line between the house connection and the heavy-duty power supply that was once installed at the house, about 1m (3 feet) below the old basement ceiling level.
To make matters worse, everything has already been fully backfilled, so now we have to dig 4m (13 feet) instead of 1m (3 feet).

What would you do? Surely the sensible option is to have the object excavated, right?
The company recommends this because without 100% certainty, there is no engineering approval for the pile foundation.
Unfortunately, the previous owners have passed away and their children know nothing about any construction work done on the old house.

Currently, it looks like our earthworks contractor will excavate the object under the supervision of an explosives expert (odd name). This supervision will cost me roughly €500.
What would be a realistic price per cubic meter for excavation, storing the material on my property, and then compacting the spoil?
We would need to excavate roughly 1.5m x 1.5m (5 feet x 5 feet) at about 4.5m (15 feet) depth. Of course, a slope will be included, so the top area might be about 5m x 5m (16 feet x 16 feet).

I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Does anyone have experience? Any price indications so I don’t get overcharged?
Would a builder’s all-risk insurance cover this type of financial loss by any chance?

Best regards,
titoz

Hi,
I received various quotes for excavation, storage, backfilling, and compaction, which ranged between 12-16 € per m³ (about 9-12 USD per cubic yard) plus tax. However, this doesn’t help you much for concrete comparison. If the price goes over 20 € per m³ (about 15 USD per cubic yard), you should start to be cautious...

You definitely need to have this done, no one wants to live on top of an unexploded bomb. Unfortunately, unexploded ordnance still occasionally detonates because the fuzes corrode. I saw a documentary some time ago claiming this happens quite often, around 10-20 times per year across Germany. Most people barely notice because most unexploded bombs that are not found lie somewhere out in the countryside.

If they really do find a bomb, that’s a stroke of luck because then the state or federal government covers all the costs. Has that policy changed recently?

Best regards,
Andreas

We are currently building a single-family house. For the excavation of the 50m³ (65.5 cubic yards) cistern, my structural contractor offered me 5.65 + tax, but only for the pure digging out and material storage, without backfilling.

Regards

Michael

Edit ... of course per m³ (cubic meter) ^^

Hello everyone,

I just got a call from the earthworks contractor... he seems pretty relaxed, calling at 9:15 p.m. :-)
He would charge 3,400 € (euros).
- 350 € (euros) for site setup, with only a 4 km (2.5 miles) drive and setting up an excavator and a compactor.
- 1,000 € (euros) for excavation
- 2,000 € (euros) for backfilling and compaction

He based his calculation on 120 m³ (cubic meters). That would be 25 € (euros) per m³ (cubic meter), which is quite expensive compared to the prices mentioned above.
But then I calculated the actual volume that needs to be moved.
About 4 m (13 feet) deep and roughly a 5 x 5 m (16 x 16 feet) area to be excavated at the surface. Since there will be slopes on all sides, I just took the volume of a pyramid: V = 1/3 * base² * height = 33.3 m³ (cubic meters).
He, however, calculated approximately a 5 x 5 m (16 x 16 feet) area and 5 m (16 feet) deep on all sides = 125 m³ (cubic meters)... a bit unrealistic and a lot.

If he calculates 40 m³ (cubic meters) at 20 € (euros) per m³ (cubic meter), then with the site setup I would be at 1,150 € (euros).

Is my reasoning correct?

Regards
Tito

If I have questions like these, I ask the provider directly. As a layperson, it’s common to overlook certain details. On the other hand, you might also be able to convince them to offer a better price.

titoz schrieb:


We bought a house that we wanted to demolish

How cute, someone’s sending their house traveling 😀 🙂 😀

Sorry, I had to say that, I’m just wiping a few tears of laughter from the corners of my eyes...

Otherwise, that’s obviously frustrating. I would rather overestimate the costs than underestimate them. If it ends up costing less, that’s better than the other way around. So don’t do optimistic calculations.
The earthworks contractor has experience with these things, so I would trust their expert opinion. So, plan for the mentioned 120 sqm (1300 sq ft).
Maybe you could try to get a comparison quote? Then you can see if the 25€/sqm (about $27/sq ft) is realistic. I don’t know if this is comparable to “normal” excavation work.
The thing is: apparently, you’re pressed for time. Do you have time to collect multiple quotes? Can you extend your short-term rental agreement? What would it cost you overall? (If you lose a month, that means paying rent for that month.)
I’ll take the 120 sqm (1300 sq ft) that the earthworks contractor is calculating (I tend to trust the expert here) and do a quick calculation:
You get a better offer at 15€ (just a hypothetical price from me): 120 x 15€ = 1,800€
So you’d save 1,200€, but might have to accept a delay and therefore pay rent for longer. Calculate what you actually save in the end...

And honestly, even if you assume the site setup costs 200€, you’d still save 1,350€; compared to the overall costs, that’s probably not a huge amount.

So, bottom line: getting a comparison quote is always a good idea. In your case, though, you clearly need to watch the timing carefully, you shouldn’t neglect that. You’ll have to think about whether the delay might end up costing you more than if the contractor could start immediately for a few hundred euros more.